Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1887-03-31
TENEMENT CIGARS.
s,ckENlNG SCENES AMONG TIN
clTY's CIGARMAkERS.

Hs7sn CampbelPs Story of the Children
at Work in the Tenement Houses Of
New York-Disease and Death In the
Leaf.
It is to the cigar making trade that
women and girls turn during the dull
season, and one finds in it representatives
from every trade in which women are en-
gagged The sewing women employed IN
I cult and clothing manufactures dur1ng
the. busy season have ne resousce save
this, snd thus prices are kept down and
the regu1e-c cigarmakers constantly re-
enforced by tAe irregular. In the present
case it was chNsfy with regular makers
that the house Mas filed, one room, g
little less than tweA-a By fourteen feet,
holding family of s. en- persons, three
of them children under ~, all girls. To-
the long table at one end where the cigarA
were rolled, its rank smell d..a dr....1n afang
that from the sinks and from zl,s zesiara1
filth, not only of this room huts of lie
house as a whole. Two of tie .hiksrsa
sat on the floor stripping the Ees. as asssls
another on small stool. a s5ri ot 10 Sat
near them, and all alike had sores crl lips
and cheeks and On the hands. Is
THE LITTLE TOTS At Ws,.ssEf1-@. ", III
Children from 5 or years Hp can hls
taught to strip and thus add tc the weeks
income, which is far less for tsae ssaensent
house manufacture than for REGULAR fac
tory work, the latter averaging rem IS
to $12 week. But the work Il cone at
home can be made to include TIE entire
family, and some 4 z,G00women are engaged
in it, an almost equal but Unregistered
number of young children sharing it with
them. AS in sewing, . number OF women /
often club together, using one room. art
in such cases their babies crawl about isls
the filth on the wet floors, playing With
the damp tobacco and brs.2thinl the poison
with which the room is saturatats,
Here, as in tobacco factori sE
and girls of every age become s.ssuiIy the
victims of nervous and hysksrtcal com
plants, the direct result of nicotine poi
soning, while succeeding these c,,s,s con-
sumption and throat diseases ha;; lting
from the dust. Canker is one Of aost
frequent difficulties, and sores ssny
orders, the trade involving more dii ers
than any that can be chosen. Yet be sIlse
an entire family can find occupation id. Il,
with no necessity for leaving home, it is
often preferred to easier employment. 1t
is the children who suffer most, growth
being stunted, nervous disease developed
and ending often in St. Titus' dance, and
skin diseases Of every order being the rule,
the causes being not only tobacco, but the
filth in which they live.
THE POISON OF PREPARATION.
It is doubtful if the most inveterate
smoker would feel much relish for the
cigar manufactured under such condi-
tions, yet hundreds of thousands go OUT
yearly from these houses, bearing in every
leaf the poison Of their preparation. In
this one house nearly thirty children Of all
ages and sizes, babies predominating,
rolled in the tobacco which covered the
floor and was piled in every direction, and
of these children under 10 thirteen were
strippers and did their days work Of
zen hours and more. Physical degenera-
ton in its worst forms become inevitable.
Even the factory chiltlworker fares better,
or in the factory there is exercise and the
going to and from work, while in the ten
ement house cigar making the worn ont
little creatures crawl to the bed, often
only pile of rags in the corner. or lie
down on heap Of the tobacco itself,
breathing the poison day and night unin-
terruptedly.
Vices of every order flourish in such air,
and morality in this trade is at the lowest
ebb. Nervous excitement is so intense
that necessarily nothing but immortality
can result, and the child of 8 or 10 is rs
gross and confirmed an oftnder as the full
grown man or woman. Diligent search
discovers few exceptions 10 this rule and
| the whole matter has reached q stage
| where legislative interference IS absolutely
| indispensable. Only in forbidding tene-
| ment house manufacture absolutely can
there be any safety for either consumer or
producer. er.-Eelen Campbell in New York
Tribune